Featuring
Bonobo, The Herbaliser, and Joshua Redman Elastic Band.
Words
and photography: Nicolai Hartvig
This is the Ottawa
International Jazz Festival: white tents, arts and crafts, ethnic
food, fold-out beer chairs, children kicking inflatable beach
balls. Music echoing off the prestigious facade of the posh Lord
Elgin Hotel across the street from a Confederation Park surrounded
by several high-rises and the Mediterranean sandstone-styled
design of Ottawa City Hall. The park is a charming breathing
ground in the middle of Canada's beautiful capital... and so
is the music.
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Bonobo
-Main Stage - Saturday July 2nd - 2PM to 3.15PM
A sparse crowd of
around 250 people dot the lawn in front of the main stage as Bonobo
start their set. The stage without back leaves only the trademark
Ottawa Jazz Festival pillars as obstacles to the breeze and the
clear blue sky and trees provide a soothing backdrop to Bonobo's
laidback brand of folkish and jazzy instrumentals. And while Bonobo's
music is somewhat removed from the traditional jazz that characterises
the vast majority of the Ottawa Jazz Festival's acts, any doubts
about this outfit's appropriateness in a jazz festival slot are
dispelled promptly and effectively.
Undulating melodies
stream over a soft, steady bassline, underpinned by the cello, guitar,
keys, percussion and occasional vocals. The musicians keep frequent
eye contact, concentrating on playing their part of the tight and
integral soundscape. They seem very laidback, going through the
motions with a quiet calm, enjoying the same tranquility that delights
the grass-lounging audience. The sax player launches into a gorgeously
stretched Pharaoh Sander-style solo escapade, working through several
rounds of applause before being rejoined by the full band for the
wrap-up.
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Simon Green, introducing
himself as Simon Bonobo, is shy on stage. Presenting a new song,
he is at loss for words to describe it and just reassures the
audience with a slight smile that "uhm.. yeah.. it's good." Which
it is. The band mainly
play songs off Dial M for Monkey, with Noctuary and
Flutter among the picks. They sprinkle in tracks from
the recently released Live Sessions EP and the classics Terrapin
and Dismantling Frank. From a relaxed start, the musicians
kick it up a notch with each song, starting off mellow and building
a funky jam - except for The Shark, which is deliciously
upbeat throughout. Most songs stick fairly closely to their original
recorded forms, but Nothing Owed makes a splash by picking
up the pace and evolving into a crashing cavalcade of sound.
Watching Bonobo live
makes you realise how catchy and memorable Simon Green's melodies
actually are. They're laidback but never dull, adequately complex
but never cluttered, good and never bad. And since anyone who has
listened even cursorily to Bonobo's albums will not need to strain
himself to appreciate the recognisable tunes, hearing Bonobo live
is most relaxing.
So Bonobo live sounds
like Bonobo. But this music is certainly best when enjoyed outside.
Here the airy and weightless quality to Bonobo's music, that sometimes
gets frustratingly trapped and de-bubbled on albums, is allowed
wings. And on this day, the band perform a very nice 75-minute soundtrack
to the summer breeze.
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The
Herbaliser -Main Stage - Saturday July 2nd - 4PM to 5.30PM
By the time The Herbaliser
take to the stage, the sun is baking the Jazz Festival crowd to
a nice crisp. But the Herbaliser crew are not quite happy with how
warmed-up the audience is and sax player Ralph Lamb vigurously motions
the crowd to get up off the grass. He keeps up his prodding throughout
the show, pointing at audience members and groups still sitting
and demanding rambunctuous applause for the band. "All you
guys sitting down, that's not allowed, man. You've got to get your
asses up and out of those chairs."
A standard band tactic
-and part of the "we feed off the crowd" theory - this
would come off as arrogance supreme, if not for the fact that the
band do their part to merit the acclaim. They immediately launch
into a funky hip-hop-ified routine and by the time Song For
Mary takes the third track slot, hipshaking and dancing has
sporadically broken out on the grass of Confederation Park. The
next ninety minutes deliver a spirited funk torrent that has the
crowd clamoring for more.
Ollie Teeba gazes
out from behing his cap and dark sunglasses with an unnerving
air of being unapproachable, breaking only to launch into scratch
suites, interspersed by some lubricating fingerlicking. His
Herbaliser counterpart Jake Wherry stays largely incognito,
playing his bass at the back of the stage throughout the show.
Chris Bowden sports a sly grin on his lips, swaying from side
to side, clutching a drink. You'd mistake him for any average
chipshop dayhanger, only to be proven deadly wrong and blown
away by his mercurial speeding sax soli. The band members are
clearly enjoying themselves, with smiles all around, except for
the perennial marbled expression on Ollie Teeba's face. The brass
section bob their heads, move between each other and chat lightly
between the bursts of horns. They are a tight bunch, punching-up
the Herbaliser sound with smooth, rolling funk à la Maceo
Parker, but keeping a nice edge - with an
eerie 50s alien invasion-style flute, thumpy basslines and
space age keyboards.
The touring unreliability
of MCs laden with heavy schedules has long been a problem for
the Herbaliser band and local talent is drafted in to fill the
absence of album-guests Jean Grae and the likes. The Herbaliser
band strictly doesn't need an MC - they are fully able to kick
up a storm on their own - and on this day, the musicians don't
seem entirely comfortable with the invasion of unfamiliar vocalists.
They clearly suffer from having to limit themselves to simple
and repetitive rhythms to avoid major cock-ups.
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Local MC Flip
Kuma and his companion come off as a couple of snug middle-class
highschool juveniles thrown way out of their league, not to mention
their, uhm, "hood". Prancing from side to side along the
edge of the stage, they spout formulaic rhymes that leaves one longing
for anything to replace them - even a powerscratching of Homer Simpson's
'Rapping Ronald Reagan' tape would be salvation here. This could
be evidence that Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch still channel some
festering putrid streams of inspiration into hip hop. Flip Kuma's
performance barely earns them a glance from the Herbaliser crew,
who seem quite annoyed with the subpar standard besieged upon their
instrumental backdrop. Jake Wherry throws the duo a less than enthusiatic
glance as they exit the stage, before the band picks up the pieces
by launching into the delectable Bambaata-style Gadget Funk.
Devoid of both rhyme and reason, this is one of those moments when
you don't quite know whether to laugh or cry. |
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Toronto MC More Or Les is a whole
other story. His rhymes are energetic and flow well, he keeps
his composure on stage, he connects well with the crowd and
most importantly, he connects well with the band. The MC is
rewarded with roaring audience applause and repeated band member
handshakes after his two appearances and he is praised by Ralph
Lamb as "a
star" and "bad" - meaning good.
The Herbaliser live is an appointment
with Mr Hyde and Mr Hyde. It's a funk party, pure and simple,
and has very little in common with the Herbaliser enjoyed on livingroom
stereo speakers. It sometimes veers towards the overly-polished
sound of pandering to the obviously not-left-of-the-center crowd,
but maintains a lot of the intricacy and audacity for which The
Herbaliser's tunes are rightly acclaimed. On the downside, the
performance is perhaps laced with too much of that blatantly intimidating
and incredibly strong British testosterone essence that oozes
self confidence. Which sometimes comes across as arrogance and
the sense that these guys are loving themselves playing the music
more than the music itself. A trait that is not uncommon among
party-funk musicians -when you move the crowd, it's hard not to
let it go to your head. But with the amount of crowd-pleasing
credit The Herbaliser rack up at this gig, one may excuse the
band for having a temporary case of zeppelin noggins.
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Joshua
Redman Elastic Band -Main Stage - Sunday July 3rd - 8.30PM to 9.45PM
"Everything
was great until about 15 minutes ago." Joshua Redman smiles
apologetically. He and the Elastic Band are, in his own words,
being
"chased off stage by Ottawa gnats." A myriad of different
insects, attracted by the red, yellow and white lights, can be
seen from a distance, buzzing around the spotlights above
the stage. The pesky little things of summer are out in force,
to the discomfort of both the band and the on average 30-year-old
audience of around eight hundred that has filled the lawn of Confederation
Park with fold-out beer chairs. After recouping, the band returns
for an encore and with a message: "With
and audience as great as you, we'll take the gnats." Some
in the audience have already started to pack up, with a stream
of itchy and scratching jazz fans starting to make their way
out. The rest are treated to the slow and sensual Oumou.
For his first time
in Ottawa, the very charming and smiling Joshua Redman has brought
a stripped-down version of the Elastic Band, without a bass
player, a duty that was taken on by Meshell Ndegeocello and
Flea on the latest Joshua Redman album Momentum. What
is left is nevertheless a very harmonious trio of sax, keys
and drums.
Each of the three
musicians seem very secure in their roles and manage to be playful
without ever disrupting the balance of each song. Most importantly,
they never shy away from adding their own little touches. Joshua
Redman is his usual exuberant self, playing with fervour, kicking,
dancing and showcasing his vast talents as a sax player, letting
streams of warm and crisp tones flow across the base laid down
by his band. Drummer Jeff Ballard is not afraid to fire off
bursts of inventive beat-shifts and little shuffle nuggets,
which he complements with a passionately nerdy
expression on his face.
Sam Yahel is on keys, providing
rhodes foundations as well as electronic twinkles and otherworldly
bass bursts. But the sample banks are only explored in full on Lonely
Woman, which is one of the outstanding songs of the show.
Here, chorus effects on the sax create a fine illusion of a
brass section, competing with a frenetic drum and bass shuffle.
The jury's still
out on whether Joshua Redman is becoming part of a new wave of ingenious
and innovative fusion, along with erstwhile cohort Meshell Ndegeocello
and her Spirit Music Jamia. The numerous effects pedals and electronics
at the feet of the sax mic looks very promising, but they are rarely
put to prominent use to innovate and breakdown boundaries during
this concert. The electronics are only wheeled out in full force
for Greasy G, turning Redman's sax into a screeching guitar,
with the song reverting into a funky Schofield-esque 'A go go'-era
rhodes bop.
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Jazz standards
are mixed in with Joshua Redman's own catchy and slightly off kilter
melodies, centering on the upbeat, occasionally giving way to a
loungy-mood and letting the tempo drop á la Lonnie Liston.
Joshua Redman definitely has an edge to his compositions, but this
concert is more timid and traditional, without however falling into
the blandness trap.
Joshua Redman and
his Elastic Band do well to please the crowd as night falls on the
Ottawa Jazz Festival's closing concert. Their performance is well
within the boundaries of jazz mainstream acceptance, but still carries
enough pizzazz and energy to captivate. On this occasion, Joshua
Redman went as far as he could on the path of innovation without
leaving behind the audience.
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